Reporters who showed up at Citi Field on Saturday for the Mets' final pre-World Series workout there discovered an unusual sight: gouged-out areas of what usually is warning track dirt in front of the first row of seats behind home plate.

Hmm. It turns out those areas, one located slightly to the third-base side and one slightly toward first base, will house 30 seats apiece designed for assorted VIPs, whose chairs will be grounded slightly below field level. They were not available for sale to the public.

The third-base side is under the control of Major League Baseball and is considered the commissioner's box, for use by baseball officials as well as MLB business partners. The seats on the first-base side are for use by the Mets.

People seated in those areas will be protected by a Plexiglas wall. A similar setup was used at Citi for the All-Star Game in 2013. Extra seats have been added at other stadiums for major events, as logistics allow.

By adding the temporary seats, MLB and the Mets can avoid displacing fans from regular rows. But some of those high-rolling fans who normally sit in the front row now will find that their row won't quite be at the front this weekend.

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.